"The first RC build for the FreeBSD-9.0 release cycle is now available. ISO images for the architectures amd64, i386, ia64, powerpc, powerpc64, and sparc64 are available on most of our FreeBSD mirror sites. One of the many new features in 9.0 we would like to be tested is the new installer, so we encourage our users to do fresh installation on test systems. Alternatively, users upgrading existing systems may now do so using the freebsd-update(8) utility."

Is it just me, or do the recent releases of FreeBSD (especially the .0 releases) since 7.0 seem fairly thin on new features? I am a DragonFly BSD committer and the general consensus in the past has been that where we are behind FreeBSD, we are only behind due to a manpower shortage. Yet lately it seems as if our release notes are as full as theirs are, is the FreeBSD labor pool drying up, or are they just doing a poor job making sure everything interesting makes it into the release notes?

I'm not sure what I was down-moderated even though I gave the list he was looking for.

And I still assert that I'm quite impressed by the FreeBSD9 features (DTrace, Capsicum, etc).

Let's look at Linux 3.1, what's are the interesting new feature?
The support of OpenRISC, a RISC CPU implemented currently only in FPGA? Bleah.
It's not the same project, not the same release process, but still..

Although I don't think the last few FreeBSD releases where light on new features, you're probably not wrong either.

I remember reading an interview with the new FreeBSD project lead years ago. In the interview he said they where going to put out major releases more frequently. By looking at the FBSD timeline ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD#Timeline ) it seems they did just that. ( now 2 years between .0 releases versus ~3 years between releases before 7.0 )
Considering that the number of contributors probably didn't increase a lot, it would only seem logical that new releases contain less new ( big ) features.

Why should the quality of code be measured by changes, features and new bells and whistles?

What has that have to do with anything?

FreeBSD isn't ahead or behind anyone or anything. I deploy many FreeBSD servers as a professional, and it has never failed me like many "feature of the day" nonsense that the rest of you are judging your success by.

Leave FreeBSD alone, you want the latest nonsense and all the instability that comes with it - go run Windows or Linux for that matter.

Somewhat concerned a DragonFly BSD committer would post such a comment.

There are several current and former FreeBSD users who believe that the project has stagnated, some going so far as to say that if you took out all the code that is being imported from OpenSolaris, the project looks like NetBSD did a few years ago.

It's also no small surprise that a DragonFly developer would point this out, as this project and OpenBSD seem to be where all the innovation is happening these days.